‘Gargantuan step forward’: Alaska Legislature passes bill to strengthen sexual consent laws

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s sexual consent legal guidelines are set to be up to date after a invoice handed unanimously by means of the Alaska Legislature on the ultimate day of the legislative session.

Below Alaska’s present statutes, there should be power in opposition to somebody or they should be incapacitated for an undesirable intercourse act to be thought of assault. However that’s set to alter with Home Invoice 325.

It states that sexual consent should be “a freely given, reversible settlement particular to the conduct at subject by a reliable particular person.”

HB 325 additionally states that consent should be “positively expressed by phrase or motion.”

Keely Olson, government director of Standing Collectively In opposition to Rape, mentioned that’s essential as a result of Alaska regulation will now match what’s being taught in faculties. She mentioned that STAR has seen “heartbreaking” circumstances when a teen comes ahead to report an assault solely to search out out what occurred will not be technically unlawful.

“If any individual says, nNo, I don’t need to interact in that intercourse act,’ That’s not a criminal offense,” mentioned Deputy Lawyer Common John Skidmore throughout a press convention final Thursday. “It takes greater than that at present, within the legal guidelines that we now have in place.”

Skidmore mentioned Home Invoice 325 made “a gargantuan step ahead” in strengthening the state’s sexual consent legal guidelines. It made different modifications, too:

• It makes revenge pornography a home violence offense
• It seeks to guard youngsters by making it unlawful for somebody greater than 10 years older to have intercourse with a 16 or 17 yr outdated.
• It makes “rape by fraud” a criminal offense, which means it will likely be unlawful to impersonate somebody to have intercourse with another person who wouldn’t have in any other case consented to the encounter

HB 325 was launched by Rep. Sara Rasmussen, R-Anchorage, and it solely included the revenge pornography modifications, however legislators throughout the aisle amended it on the finish of the session to incorporate the provisions in Home Invoice 5. Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, carried that second invoice.

“We’ve lengthy identified that the definition of consent that we at the moment have will not be working and doesn’t replicate what we take into account sexual assault,” Tarr mentioned.

Tarr defined that there was a yearslong push to alter Alaska’s 40-year-old sexual consent statutes. Sufferer advocacy teams have been working with legislators on the exact wording of the brand new consent definition with hopes that it’ll see optimistic modifications when the brand new regulation comes into impact.

“We are able to’t stop each dangerous factor from occurring, however we will undoubtedly ensure that the regulation will work so an Alaskan can get justice,” Tarr mentioned.

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